Leo DiCaprio pretended he was a doctor or "he were" a doctor? [closed]

Solution 1:

The subjunctive is slowly disappearing from use and it isn't used with pretend here.

Leonardo DiCaprio pretended [that] he was a doctor.

or, terser and better,

He pretended to be a doctor.

He was pretending that he was a doctor, not wondering whether he could or would be or were one. That he performed the duties of a doctor is entirely irrelevant.

Solution 2:

As Xanne says, go with "pretended he was" or "pretended to be." The criterion of "hypotheticality" is by no means sufficient to warrant the use of "I/he/she/it were." In modern English, these forms are only used in certain grammatical contexts, and this is not one of them.

As tchrist pointed out in a comment, the Google Ngram Viewer shows 0% usage of "pretended he were". It does show "pretended he was":

Compare for example "They thought he was a doctor, but he wasn’t." "They thought he were a doctor" is obviously wrong, "he weren't" even more so, even though the sentence clearly indicates that his being a doctor is an entirely hypothetical scenario. Another variant: "They didn't think he was (not were) a doctor."

Solution 3:

Here are the hold-over usages of subjunctive that I'm aware of in English:

"If he were a doctor, he'd know what 'pneumothorax' means." Here 'were' and 'he'd' (he would) are "past-tense" subjunctives, although they are used in a "present-tense" situation. "If he had been a doctor, he would have known what 'pneumothorax meant." Now it's in the past tense and subjunctive. The non-standard usage of 'had been' and 'have known' indicate that they are subjunctive and are happening at the same time as the indicative verb 'meant'.

"If I were you, I wouldn't touch that electrical cable." Here 'were' and 'wouldn't' are past-tense subjunctives used in a present-tense situation. "If I had been you, I wouldn't have touched that electrical cable." This is past tense subjunctive, most likely spoken by a bereaved friend of the departed at a funeral.

'Should', 'might', 'could', and 'would' can indicate subjunctivity; the latter two can also mean indicative action happening in the past, depending on context.

"We ask that you be quiet. We ask that he go home." 'Be' and 'go' are "present-tense" subjunctive verbs that indicate a hypothetical, desired state and, in the 2nd person, evolve into commands when shortened: "Be quiet!" "Go home!"